Lead Data Scientist

JOB DETAILS

Job Reference: 23234

Band: E

Salary: £91,000 -£97,000, depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

Contract type: Permanent, Full-Time

Location: Glasgow, London, Salford or Newcastle. This is a hybrid role and the successful candidate will balance office working with home working.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

The BBC has been serving audiences online for decades, across key products including BBC iPlayer, News, Sport, Weather and Sounds. As we evolve to deiver more personalised content and experiences, Data Science is at the heart of that transformation.

As a team we use ML / AI to enrich our content, power personalised experiences and improve editorial workflows for thousands of BBC editorial staff and millions of audience members. We’re looking for a Lead Data Scientist to lead the Authoring & Curation Data Science team within Product Group.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

As Lead Data Scientist you’ll play a leading role in supporting the delivery of value of our existing ML / AI products, while helping the team grow into newly emerging opportunities.

This role is to lead the Authoring + Curation Data Science team, who focus on delivering automated metadata and authoring tooling for BBC audiences. This is a well-established team with significant ambition for the year ahead, aiming to accelerate the delivery of generative AI within the content publication workflows. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow your leadership skillset as part of a multi-disciplinary leadership team at a time of significant transformation.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

• Brief introductory screening call for shortlisted candidates (approx 20 minutes)
• Two part interview - 1.5 hours total
• Case study task - 45 mins (10 min presentation + approx. 30 min Q&A)
• Competency based interview - 45 mins
  
  

Your Key Responsibilities And Impact

• To lead and support a team of data scientists working as part of a diverse and cross-functional team.
• To collaborate with multi-disciplinary leadership in your area, including product management, software engineering, architecture and delivery.
• Set the direction and priorities for your team, aligning their work with the area and wider Produt Group strategy.
• Champion best practice in machine learning product delivery, including approaches to model evaluation and responsible AI.
• Build partnerships and relationships with stakeholders across the BBC to identify new opportunities where data science can deliver audience and editorial value.
  
  

Your Skills And Experience

• A passion for coaching and mentoring others, effective at growing those around you.
• Strong technical grounding in data science and machine learning, with prior hands-on experience delivering data science products at scale.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, able to act as bridge between technical and non-technical perspectives.
• Skilled at framing complex, ambiguous problems as clear, actionable data science opportunities.
• Strategic mindset with focus on driving measurable impact and continuous improvement.
  
  

Essential Criteria

• Enthusiasm for leading and managing a team of data scientists (experience a bonus).
• Experienced in delivering value with data and ML products and/or features in production at scale.
• Experienced in working with multi-disciplinary teams.
• An understanding of the technical landscape of data science and machine learning in industry.
• Able to work with domain experts and non-technical stakeholders to identify new collaboration opportunities.
  
  

Desired But Not Required

• Experience as people leader and hiring manager for a team a bonus.
• Experience applying ML or Generative AI in media, publishing or creative domains.
• Experience working in large product or public service organisations.
• Familiarity with NLP and metadata automation.
  
  

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

NOTICE

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.